The End of October by Lawrence Wright
03 Saturday Oct 2020
Posted in 20th century, Fiction
The Last Flight by Julie Clark
25 Friday Sep 2020
Posted in 20th century, Fiction, thriller, Travel
A woman decides to leave her abusive husband by disappearing to start a new life. At the airport, she meets another woman, also in dire straits running from her past. On a whim and to cover their tracks even further, they swap airline tickets. Then, one of the planes crashes….. I thought it was very well done.
“The moral dilemmas that the multifaceted, realistic characters face in their quest for survival lend weight to this pulse-pounding tale of suspense. Clark is definitely a writer to watch.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
“The Last Flight sweeps you into a thrilling story of two desperate women who will do anything to escape their lives. Both poignant and addictive, you’ll race through the pages to the novel’s chilling end. A must read of the summer!” – Kaira Rouda, internationally bestselling author of Best Day Ever and The Favorite Daughter
“A tense and engaging womancentric thriller.” – Kirkus Reviews, starred review
What You Wish For by Katherine Center
18 Friday Sep 2020
Posted in 20th century, Fiction, romance, United States
Samantha was in love with her coworker Duncan when they worked together at the same school. Years later, with Samantha now working as a school librarian in Texas, the two are reunited, but Duncan is no longer the happy, carefree teacher he used to be. This love story is sad but also uplifting, and in these times I appreciated the message that one character shares with another: spread joy whenever you can.
The story’s message, that people should choose joy even (and especially) in difficult and painful times, seems tailor-made for this moment. A timely, uplifting read about finding joy in the midst of tragedy, filled with quirky characters and comforting warmth.–Kirkus (starred review)
“What You Wish For is a bona fide explosion of happiness packaged in book form. A compassionate story of grief and resilience, What You Wish For is also a vital reminder that joy is not just something that happens to us but also something we have the power to choose… Center has created for her readers a quirky confection that celebrates life in all its imperfect glory and delivers a much-needed dose of optimism.” — Bookpage
Dreamland: the True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
12 Saturday Sep 2020
Posted in 20th century, Non-fiction
Tags
addictive painkillers, American Dream, drug addiction, drug traffic, heroin abuse, Mexico, narcotics, oxycodone, United States
“Does what ‘Fast Food Nation’ did for fast food to Black Tar Heroin and oxycodone . . . A stunning journalistic journey that follows the history and narrative trajectories that lead to this entirely new style of cultivating drug addiction . . . I just love this book.” – Marc Maron
“Fascinating . . . a harrowing, eye-opening look at two sides of the same coin, the legal and illegal faces of addictive painkillers and their insidious power.” ―Publishers Weekly
“Journalist Quinones weaves an extraordinary story, including the personal journeys of the addicted, the drug traffickers, law enforcement, and scores of families affected by the scourge, as he details the social, economic, and political forces that eventually destroyed communities in the American heartland and continues to have a resounding impact.” ―starred review, Booklist
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
04 Friday Sep 2020
Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction
Tags
hospitals, Influenza Epidemic 1918-1919, Ireland, maternity services, medical personnel, nurses, orphans, pregnant women
If you’re reading to escape thoughts of our current pandemic, this probably isn’t the book for you. However, if you’re willing to give it a chance, this novel set in Ireland during the 1918 influenza is worth the time. The main character is a nurse working on the maternity ward caring for pregnant women suffering from the flu. There are many tense scenes of childbirth and illness, and some very timely references to masks and social distancing, but also discussion of Ireland, World War I, the Catholic Church, and women’s lives in 1918. This is a beautifully written book that’s hard to put down.
Donoghue offers vivid characters and a gripping portrait of a world beset by a pandemic and political uncertainty. A fascinating read in these difficult times.– Booklist (starred review)
In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in “Donoghue’s best novel since Room” (Kirkus Reviews)
Apeirogon: a novel by Colum McCann
24 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in 20th century, Fiction
Tags
daughters' death, fathers, grief, Israelis, Jewish-Arab relations, pacifists, Palestinian Arabs, political fiction
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • From the National Book Award–winning and bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin comes an epic novel rooted in the unlikely real-life friendship between two fathers. (Amazon)
To become a member of the Parent’s Circle, you have to lose a child and be willing to speak. The author, in real life, met these 2 fathers and was so inspired to write about their stories and their determination to turn their grief into a weapon for peace. This is more than a story about Palestine and Israel. This is 1001 fragments that come together to form a whole – a tour de force unlike anything you’ve read to date.
“Brilliant . . . powerful and prismatic . . . Apeirogon is an empathy engine, utterly collapsing the gulf between teller and listener. . . . It achieves its aim by merging acts of imagination and extrapolation with historical fact. But it’s undisputably a novel, and, to my mind, an exceedingly important one. It does far more than make an argument for peace; it is, itself, an agent of change.”—The New York Times Book Review (cover review)
“McCann performs his own epic balancing act between life and art, writing with stunning lyricism and fluent empathy as he traces the ripple effects of violence and grief, beauty, and the miraculous power of friendship and love, valor and truth.”—Booklist (starred review)
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
18 Tuesday Aug 2020
Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction
“I might have been ten, eleven years old – I cannot say for certain – when my first master died.” So begins the odyssey of a young boy who escapes slavery in Barbados and embarks on a richly imbued adventure to discover the true meaning of freedom. Washington Black is an unforgettable character and I looked forward to every sitting with this book.
“Exuberant and spellbinding. . . . The novel is not only harrowing and poignant in its portrayal of the horrors of slavery on a Caribbean plantation but liberating, too, in its playful shattering of the usual tropes. The result is a book about freedom that’s both heartbreaking and joyfully invigorating.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Wall Street Journal
“Edugyan has created a wonder of an adventure story, powered by the helium of fantasy, but also by the tender sensibility of its aspiring young hero.” —NPR
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
10 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in 20th century, Biography, History, Non-fiction, United States
Tags
African American women, biography, cancer patients, cancer research, cell culture, heath, HeLa cells, Henrietta Lacks 1920-1951, history, human experimentation in medicine, medical ethics, Virginia
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – If you never read it, do it now. It is as relevant now as it was then, a must read and see the movie too starring Oprah Winfrey. Book club selection at the Weston Public Library January 2020.
Just a few of the many accolades this 2010 book received:
Discover magazine 2010 Must-Read
Entertainment Weekly #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year
National Public Radio Best of the Bestsellers
Bloomberg Top Nonfiction
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Library Journal Top Ten Book of the Year
Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
Booklist Top of the List—Best Nonfiction Book
New York Times/Science Bestseller list
“Science writing is often just about ‘the facts.’ Skloot’s book, her first, is far deeper, braver, and more wonderful.” —New York Times Book Review
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a remarkable feat of investigative journalism and a moving work of narrative nonfiction that reads with the vividness and urgency of fiction. It also raises sometimes uncomfortable questions with no clear-cut answers about whether people should be remunerated for their physical, genetic contributions to research and about the role of profit in science.”
—National Public Radio
“Skloot explores human consequences of the intersection of science and business, rescuing one of modern medicine’s inadvertent pioneers from an unmarked grave.” —US News & World Report
The Holdout by Graham Moore
03 Monday Aug 2020
Posted in 20th century, Fiction, murder, suspense
Tags
African Americans, investigation, legal thriller, missing persons, murder trials, mystery, race relations, rich people
“Wow! I loved The Holdout, in which author Graham Moore does the impossible, creating a page-turning legal thriller with a twisty and absolutely riveting plot, as well as raising profound and thought-provoking questions about the jury system and modern justice. All that, plus a strong and compelling female heroine in lawyer Maya Seale, whom you’ll root for as the tables turn against her and she finds herself behind bars, with everything on the line. You won’t be able to put this one down!”—Lisa Scottoline, #1 bestselling author of Someone Knows
“The twists are sharp and the flashbacks that uncover what each juror knows are placed for maximum impact in this rollicking legal thriller. . . . Moore expertly combines deft character work with mounting bombshell revelations in a story that will attract new readers and also seems primed for the big screen.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“This stellar novel from bestseller [Graham] Moore takes a searing look at the U.S. justice system, media scrutiny, and racism. . . . Moore has set a new standard for legal thrillers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] stemwinder of a murder mystery wrapped in a legal thriller . . . The story is gripping, and the pace is furious.”—Booklist
Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan
27 Monday Jul 2020
Posted in 20th century, Fiction, United States
Elisabeth is a new mother who has just moved with her husband to a college town in upstate New York. There, she hires a new babysitter named Sam, a college student who struggles to fit in with her wealthier peers. The two women share a close bond, but their different situations and backgrounds occasionally cause tension. This thoughtful, well written novel explores motherhood, class, and friendship.
“Sullivan’s intimate, incisive latest explores the evolving friendship between a new mother and her babysitter… Readers will be captivated by Sullivan’s authentic portrait of modern motherhood.”—Publishers Weekly
“Sullivan… writes with empathy for her characters even as she reveals their flaws and shortcomings. And while the story she tells focuses primarily on two women from different backgrounds and at different stages of life, it also illuminates broader issues about money, privilege, and class; marriage, family, and friendship; and the dueling demands of career and domesticity with which many women struggle. This perceptive novel about a complex friendship between two women resonates as broadly as it does deeply.”—Kirkus, starred review
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